Re: Correctly Translating and Understanding the Works and Teachings of Morihei Ueshib

Quote:

Bernard Kwan wrote:

Hi Dan,
you are probably right - I would love to spend more time with Chris to look at some of the other interesting passages to make more of a case.
But I thought it was an interesting intellectual exercise if nothing else as to why he chose the specific Kanji that he did.
Bernard

Hello Bernard
I agree we need more time but the case is pretty much nailed and moving in one direction.
In keeping with his personal training history (and the reason I nailed what he was doing and what we all should have been talking about) his focus was on creating aiki as a blending of ki in himself- in/yo ho. Then and only then, did he address connection between others.
It is aiki in me
looong beforeaiki between thee and me.
I know that as a model, it turns aikido on its head, but as I have said for years; aikido-ka are really not doing Morihei Ueshiba's way of aiki, they are doing something different. No harm, no foul, but they can't make any case at all that they were. They self-admittedly don't even know what the hell he was talking about in defining his own aiki. Now others are seeing Ueshiba's own definitions, and realize as well that they stand in stark opposition to what Aikido™ is today.

Examining recent discussions
You had me pointing to dual spirals. You had me arguing with a Chinese IS taiji guy here who was saying there was no spiraling or reeling in Aikido.
The creation of some important affects that creates on contact.
Why you do not turn from or generate power from- the hips.
The reason aikido is elbow power.
And the reason that Tohei's model did not nearly cut it, as he never was moving like Ueshiba.

What is the result
Ueshiba's own words now revealing that; The mystery of aiki is revealed in dual spirals; descending on one side, rising on the other and secondarily the effect it creates within your own body...where they cross. So it turns out- Dual opposing spirals was Ueshiba's own definition for his internal movement.
This, before he goes on to state the effect that has when dealing with force.
This leads to his statements of the circle and center and how it is NOT you moving in a circle at all. That it is in fact the source of irimi/tenkan in neutralizing in duality. The great, vaunted, circle of aiki had not one thing to do with moving in a circle.

What will be the next step?
In the end -as I had stated and predicted years ago- there is an Aikido™ of Kisshomaru, and the true way of Aiki, the founders mission. Morihei Ueshiba was the model and not his son. It is his words we need to adhere to and not those of his son or later followers. It is no surprise that the aikikai banned certain practices-all centering around this work- and distanced themselves from those with power, to the point that these men pursued and taught aiki differently, outside of hombu. This continues to this very day. Nothing is more damning or revealing than seeing the growing numbers of teachers going outside of Aikido™ to learn the way of aiki and watching the Aikikai and modern adepts circling the wagons against the percieved intrusion.

In the fullness of time Kisshomaru got what he wanted; an externally athletic, blandly consistent, cookie cutter model, Aikido™- that had nothing to do with Morihei Ueshiba's power and understanding of what aiki...is. We will see and increasing number of teachers trying to conscript and redefine aiki into a generic catch all term- such as the realm of aiki -to validate and place a protective umbrella over their current understanding.
Yet the words of the founder "This is not my aikido" is still echoing down the halls of time and speaking to the vast majority of us today. And now, with clear terms that define and separate his own meaning of aiki, away from any modern attempt at a generic model.
All the best
Dan

2012The Way of Aiki
Exploring internal strength and Aiki in the Japanese arts Including never before translated words of Aikido's founder Morihei Ueshiba